Because I've joined the Roleplay Club in Blackheath that takes up most of my Thursdays, I haven't been able to come down to the Woodman for a while. That's a shame because I've really enjoyed playing the open nights there in the past, and I've made some good friends out of it! However, I took a couple of nights off Roleplay and decided to make the journey up to Bilbrook to see what happened:
Coming up on the end of the month when no one's got any money, there wasn't all that many people there, and those that were I knew most of them at least by sight. However, they haven't heard me play Always Remember Me yet, so I thought I'd give them that. I played it slightly better tonight, and I think it went down OK, though I'm not sure how to guauge how well-known that song is in an environment like that.
One song that did seem to go down well at the Woodman when I played there in the past was Dear Mr Manager, so I gave that another go. The quiet and morbid nature of the song, along with it's apparent popularity, meant that it was deathly quiet in the pub while I was playing. A high complement indeed, and it is nice to get through it without making any mistakes...
At this point I found myself quite incapable of remembering what I was doing or why, so I launched in to Bitterness. This goes down as well as it ever does but - and I really do take no pleasure at all from saying this - is getting to be a bit old hat now; the one that I feel obliged to play at every gig I do. Of all the songs I did tonight, this one was the most predictable, if the best played.
I gave the Foggy Dew a run through as well. This is a song that I like to play but haven't played too many times in recent months, simply because I've not found the right atmosphere to do it in (Katies is the best bet, but even that depends on the age and demographic of the audience.) For that reason I think I fluffed up a couple of chords, though none of the lyrics; mistakes I would have preferred not to have made but I doubt it did too much damage.
I recognised that there weren't all that many of us playing tonight so I asked Sam if it was OK if I could do one more. At his request, I played Storm From The North, which thinking about it I don't think I've actually played at the Woodman before. It's a flattering feeling to have one of your own songs requested! Sam described it as 'The Crashpoint Song' and it took me a few seconds to realise which one he meant. I thought I would be clever and try to put a Crashpoint song in the middle of it, I injected a bit of Keep Your Distance to ramp it down to the quiet bit, and fell flat on my face as I forgot the words. To my own song, not Emma's lyrics...
Later on I went up and did another few songs. I tried Buck Rogers by Feeder but I find this very difficult to do on acoustic because of the barre chords involved. I'm fine on electric but the performance of this one suffered for that.
Then I played a song I hadn't played for literally years: Fake Plastic Trees by Radiohead. It was a good feeling to hear cries of 'Tune!' as I hit the opening chords. This song I really made an effort to learn how to play when I was 17, and I still remember all the words and chords which makes it quite something, even if Radiohead aren't a band I make a habit of listening to.
I finished up with Halelujah, closer to the Jeff Buckley version but I'm not quite that good! I was as surprised as anyone that I managed to make it all the way through without forgetting any of the words, and I was reliably informed by Sam afterwards that considering he hates that song with a passion, it was one of the most pallatable versions he'd heard. That's not nothing!
All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable night at The Woodman. It will be a long time before I come to another one but it's nice to know that it's a musical venture that has remained reasonably solid for Sam over the last year or so...
Showing posts with label The Woodman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Woodman. Show all posts
Wednesday, 5 October 2011
Sunday, 3 April 2011
Open Mic at the Woodman 31/3/2011
Hi there. As promised...
I said I'd be at Sam's open night when I saw him on his birthday, and I'm not one to go back on my word; this was the night I hoped to play Storm From The North for the first time. I did play it... but actually debuted it at Katies the previous night, as I've already explained.
At open mics like this, especially this one where I hae a certain level of friendly familiarity with the regulars, I can afford to chop and change my set around a little bit so I started with Girl's Names. I played it fine and it went down as well as ever; a little uninspired for a set opener but to be honest I really didn't feel like playing We Will Survive tonight so I went for a way to leave it out of the 4 songs I've got in the time frame.
Next was Get Out Of My Head. I introduced it as the "I forgot my capo" song (a cheeky reference to when I've gone to Sam's open night before and forgot my capo, this song being the only one of my own songs I could therefore play) but I actually played it because I didn't get around to playing it at Sam's birthday last week and I hadn't gorgotten Kayla asking for it! So that one was for her, though to be fair I like playing it too.
Then I played Storm from the North. I announced that I had a new song and went straight in to it, and it went down really well. I know this because Sam confirmed it at the end of my set, Glenn from Under the Banner was trying to figure out my time signatures in the quiet parts (for the record it's one bar of 9/8 and one bar of 12/8) and some of the regular guys told me afterwards that 'That Sea Shanty One' was reallly good. I'm very pleased with this, I put a lot of work in to making sure that song was perfect before I played it live and I'm delighted it went down so well.
I went straight into Bitterness after that, reasoning that I might as well go out with a bang! I played it well enough, however I've played that song so many times now to these guys that I guess the real novelty of it was when I break it down into the bassline and make a joke while I'm playing. In this case, I mentioned that it's always easy to tell who plays drums in the audience because they're tapping along to the songs that I'm playing...
I got talking to Ed and some of the regulars afterwards who seem to think I've got something special going on. Ed in particular likes Dear Mr Manager, a generous thing to say considering I hadn't played it there in a month! And the whole acoustic thing seems to be working for me right now. Thinking about why that is, I guess it's because I'm basically playing rock songs on an acoustic guitar. That's not actually as common as it sounds. Some guys might do acoustic covers of rock songs, I seem to be writing rock songs specifically to play them on acoustic guitar.
Why? Well, to be honest, the only reason I'm playing the acoustic guitar so much these days is because I can't seem to hold it together with a band. Given the choice, I'd much rather be rocking out with the band, it's just that getting one together seems to be almost impossible for me at this point! And I don't listen to a lot of acoustic music either. But these things work to my benefit, because a fondness for modern rock and no pre-conceived idea of how acoustic music is supposed to sound means that what I come up with sits somewhere between the two, which for a great many people I guess is a refreshing change.
Which is good because things aren't looking all that great for either of my bands right now; The Fakes have kept it together for 7 years but with only 5 gigs to show for it one could hardly accuse us of taking it seriously. Perception... it's hard to keep up the enthusiasm for that band when we've never had a complete lineup we've been able to hold on to for more than a couple of weeks in the year we've been together. I did actually think about getting Crashpoint back together, but as that would only count for me and Cj in this day and age, we'd hardly be the band we quit a year ago.
But the momentum's rolling, and for now at least, I'm enjoying it...
I said I'd be at Sam's open night when I saw him on his birthday, and I'm not one to go back on my word; this was the night I hoped to play Storm From The North for the first time. I did play it... but actually debuted it at Katies the previous night, as I've already explained.
At open mics like this, especially this one where I hae a certain level of friendly familiarity with the regulars, I can afford to chop and change my set around a little bit so I started with Girl's Names. I played it fine and it went down as well as ever; a little uninspired for a set opener but to be honest I really didn't feel like playing We Will Survive tonight so I went for a way to leave it out of the 4 songs I've got in the time frame.
Next was Get Out Of My Head. I introduced it as the "I forgot my capo" song (a cheeky reference to when I've gone to Sam's open night before and forgot my capo, this song being the only one of my own songs I could therefore play) but I actually played it because I didn't get around to playing it at Sam's birthday last week and I hadn't gorgotten Kayla asking for it! So that one was for her, though to be fair I like playing it too.
Then I played Storm from the North. I announced that I had a new song and went straight in to it, and it went down really well. I know this because Sam confirmed it at the end of my set, Glenn from Under the Banner was trying to figure out my time signatures in the quiet parts (for the record it's one bar of 9/8 and one bar of 12/8) and some of the regular guys told me afterwards that 'That Sea Shanty One' was reallly good. I'm very pleased with this, I put a lot of work in to making sure that song was perfect before I played it live and I'm delighted it went down so well.
I went straight into Bitterness after that, reasoning that I might as well go out with a bang! I played it well enough, however I've played that song so many times now to these guys that I guess the real novelty of it was when I break it down into the bassline and make a joke while I'm playing. In this case, I mentioned that it's always easy to tell who plays drums in the audience because they're tapping along to the songs that I'm playing...
I got talking to Ed and some of the regulars afterwards who seem to think I've got something special going on. Ed in particular likes Dear Mr Manager, a generous thing to say considering I hadn't played it there in a month! And the whole acoustic thing seems to be working for me right now. Thinking about why that is, I guess it's because I'm basically playing rock songs on an acoustic guitar. That's not actually as common as it sounds. Some guys might do acoustic covers of rock songs, I seem to be writing rock songs specifically to play them on acoustic guitar.
Why? Well, to be honest, the only reason I'm playing the acoustic guitar so much these days is because I can't seem to hold it together with a band. Given the choice, I'd much rather be rocking out with the band, it's just that getting one together seems to be almost impossible for me at this point! And I don't listen to a lot of acoustic music either. But these things work to my benefit, because a fondness for modern rock and no pre-conceived idea of how acoustic music is supposed to sound means that what I come up with sits somewhere between the two, which for a great many people I guess is a refreshing change.
Which is good because things aren't looking all that great for either of my bands right now; The Fakes have kept it together for 7 years but with only 5 gigs to show for it one could hardly accuse us of taking it seriously. Perception... it's hard to keep up the enthusiasm for that band when we've never had a complete lineup we've been able to hold on to for more than a couple of weeks in the year we've been together. I did actually think about getting Crashpoint back together, but as that would only count for me and Cj in this day and age, we'd hardly be the band we quit a year ago.
But the momentum's rolling, and for now at least, I'm enjoying it...
Saturday, 19 March 2011
Open Mic at the Woodman 18/3/2011
Few are the times that I don't have something to say for myself these days...
Capos are funny things. Considering it's as simple as putting an extra nut on to the guitar so you can play higher notes, it's astonishing how you can come to rely on them, not only as a tool to keep your voice level with the music, but also as a songwriting aid, as sometimes chords sound more melodically suggestive when played higher up the neck. You also come to rely on them to always be in your guitar case, and it's a bit of a let down when you get three quarters of the way to Codsall before you remember that, actually, no, it's in your OTHER guitar case, and you've got to go ahead and do an acoustic gig without your capo. Well done. Sometimes I wonder how seriously I'm taking all of this...
Now there were plenty of people at The Woodman tonight who would happily have lent me a capo but I had a bee in my bonnet and thought no, if I can't even bring a capo to a night like this then I need to face the consequences. So I founf myself playing a load of songs that I hadn't played for a while, some for literally years, that I can do without the capo. I kicked off with Just The Way I'm Feeling by Feeder, and I found it quite startling considering that they're my favourite band that I couldn't remember what order the lyrics appear! I don't think it particularly matters with that song as they all sound near enough the same anyway, and Sam's Mom was singing along to it so that was cool!
Next I played Epiphany by Staind, I haven't played that for almost a year since the gig at the City Tavern in Birmingham. As I was trying to sing it I was struck by how low it actually is, I can barely manage it. As this isn't one of the band's singles, as far as I know, nobody really knew it, but it's the only one I can really manage because if I'm going to do Outside I really need to be in Eflat tuning. All things considered, I played it quite well, though I won't be too quick to put it in any future set lists...
After explaining the situation with my capo to quite a large audience, I launched in to the only one of my songs that I don't really need it for - Get Out Of My Head. For some reason I was a lot less accurate with the plectrum than I normally am, although this may be because that was the first time I'd played it in the week it's been since the last time I played one of Sam's open nights. Nonetheless I was pleased with my performance, I can put quite a bit of drama in to that song which is probably why I like playing it so much!
Last, I went for a performance of Walking On The Sun by Smash Mouth. I like playing that song so I play it to myself sometimes but it's been some months since I last played it at a live show; whether there were enough '90s kids' in the room to know the song I don't know but Sam came up to me afterwards and said it was really good and that he hadn't heard it for ages. I think I'll be keeping that one as an emergency trump card in the future!
It was nice hanging around with Elliot, Kayla and Mike afterwards as well, Sam's open nights always attract a really nice crowd. Looking forward to the next one!
Capos are funny things. Considering it's as simple as putting an extra nut on to the guitar so you can play higher notes, it's astonishing how you can come to rely on them, not only as a tool to keep your voice level with the music, but also as a songwriting aid, as sometimes chords sound more melodically suggestive when played higher up the neck. You also come to rely on them to always be in your guitar case, and it's a bit of a let down when you get three quarters of the way to Codsall before you remember that, actually, no, it's in your OTHER guitar case, and you've got to go ahead and do an acoustic gig without your capo. Well done. Sometimes I wonder how seriously I'm taking all of this...
Now there were plenty of people at The Woodman tonight who would happily have lent me a capo but I had a bee in my bonnet and thought no, if I can't even bring a capo to a night like this then I need to face the consequences. So I founf myself playing a load of songs that I hadn't played for a while, some for literally years, that I can do without the capo. I kicked off with Just The Way I'm Feeling by Feeder, and I found it quite startling considering that they're my favourite band that I couldn't remember what order the lyrics appear! I don't think it particularly matters with that song as they all sound near enough the same anyway, and Sam's Mom was singing along to it so that was cool!
Next I played Epiphany by Staind, I haven't played that for almost a year since the gig at the City Tavern in Birmingham. As I was trying to sing it I was struck by how low it actually is, I can barely manage it. As this isn't one of the band's singles, as far as I know, nobody really knew it, but it's the only one I can really manage because if I'm going to do Outside I really need to be in Eflat tuning. All things considered, I played it quite well, though I won't be too quick to put it in any future set lists...
After explaining the situation with my capo to quite a large audience, I launched in to the only one of my songs that I don't really need it for - Get Out Of My Head. For some reason I was a lot less accurate with the plectrum than I normally am, although this may be because that was the first time I'd played it in the week it's been since the last time I played one of Sam's open nights. Nonetheless I was pleased with my performance, I can put quite a bit of drama in to that song which is probably why I like playing it so much!
Last, I went for a performance of Walking On The Sun by Smash Mouth. I like playing that song so I play it to myself sometimes but it's been some months since I last played it at a live show; whether there were enough '90s kids' in the room to know the song I don't know but Sam came up to me afterwards and said it was really good and that he hadn't heard it for ages. I think I'll be keeping that one as an emergency trump card in the future!
It was nice hanging around with Elliot, Kayla and Mike afterwards as well, Sam's open nights always attract a really nice crowd. Looking forward to the next one!
Thursday, 24 February 2011
Open Mic Night, The Woodman, 24/2/11
Well, tonight didn't get off to a flying start. I had actually intended to go to the Tap and Spile, or the Pretty Bricks in Walsall, basically because I've got a gig at the Wharf on Saturday and I'm looking to do SOMETHING to promote it. This didn't go to plan, I arrived at the pub to find that it was closed, probably for some time. Combine that with going to the Drunken Duck on Monday to find that their jam night was actually on Tuesday and the week's not looking good for me...
I turned up at the Woodman at 10 to find the usual crowd there; no bad thing because they're a great bunch of people. After a short wait, Sam got me on, and what followed was the best I'd felt about a set that I'd done for a while:
Tripped up a bit with Bitterness. The positioning of that song's always an issue with me; do I put it at the start and set the pace and adrenaline for the whole show, or do I put it at the end when my hands have warmed up and there's an outside chance of being able to play the fast strums? My plectrum didn't help. The thing about being a teacher, as I lost no time in telling the audience afterwards, is that you'll always end a working day with half the number of plectrums that you had when you started it. I have one carbon-feeling plectrum that tends to snap if I strum too hard (and I strum hard!) and one millimetre-thick plectrum that's fine for picking, not so good for strumming - this was the one I used. But it made it hard work for me. Other than that, it went OK, it's as familiar as any of my songs get, particularly with this crowd who Elliot tells me enjoyed it, and I made no major mistakes.
My plan for the day was to play Dear Mr Manager all the way through without having to stop to remember the words, and while there were a few points here where I messed up, it was nothing particularly horrible and I did manage to get all the way through. So that one's getting better! About time too, though I'm not happy with the precedent it's setting for how long I'm going to get my new songs to playable levels. I think I need to be careful where in the set I put this song; I doubt straight after Bitterness is a good idea, because from loud and brash to almost a whisper is probably too vast a change in dynamics. But hey, that's not the point of an open mic night; at least I didn't have any key drones. Not sure how well it went down; it's not one that's been talked about much so far and would tend to be more popular with the older members of the audience - who I spend far less time talking to than Sam and his friends. Not casting aspersions on them or anything like that, that's just the way it is.
Next I played a cover that I'd never really played live before, Linger by The Cranberries. I had to concentrate on the words but that actually went really well, people were singing along to it and everything! I guess that's a nice song to break out if I need some respite from my insufferable self-pity, it certainly did me no harm tonight.
By this time I was feeling really good about how it was going and launched into the most energetic performance of Get Out Of My Head I think I've done so far. Usually, as my opener, that's the one that's got to win the crowd over and would set the tone for the gig. Now that I'd been on the stage for a few songs, I could relax a little and enjoy playing it, which I'm choosing to think made everybody else enjoy the song a lot more as well. I'll have to give that some serious consideration, not least because I've got a 7-song set list to come up with for Saturday.
So, all's well that ends well. And that's not something I say a great many times! Thanks again to Sam and Roy for putting the night on, we really appreciate it and it's going really well, I think. Need to get him doing one in Birmingham though; it's screaming for something like that...
I turned up at the Woodman at 10 to find the usual crowd there; no bad thing because they're a great bunch of people. After a short wait, Sam got me on, and what followed was the best I'd felt about a set that I'd done for a while:
Tripped up a bit with Bitterness. The positioning of that song's always an issue with me; do I put it at the start and set the pace and adrenaline for the whole show, or do I put it at the end when my hands have warmed up and there's an outside chance of being able to play the fast strums? My plectrum didn't help. The thing about being a teacher, as I lost no time in telling the audience afterwards, is that you'll always end a working day with half the number of plectrums that you had when you started it. I have one carbon-feeling plectrum that tends to snap if I strum too hard (and I strum hard!) and one millimetre-thick plectrum that's fine for picking, not so good for strumming - this was the one I used. But it made it hard work for me. Other than that, it went OK, it's as familiar as any of my songs get, particularly with this crowd who Elliot tells me enjoyed it, and I made no major mistakes.
My plan for the day was to play Dear Mr Manager all the way through without having to stop to remember the words, and while there were a few points here where I messed up, it was nothing particularly horrible and I did manage to get all the way through. So that one's getting better! About time too, though I'm not happy with the precedent it's setting for how long I'm going to get my new songs to playable levels. I think I need to be careful where in the set I put this song; I doubt straight after Bitterness is a good idea, because from loud and brash to almost a whisper is probably too vast a change in dynamics. But hey, that's not the point of an open mic night; at least I didn't have any key drones. Not sure how well it went down; it's not one that's been talked about much so far and would tend to be more popular with the older members of the audience - who I spend far less time talking to than Sam and his friends. Not casting aspersions on them or anything like that, that's just the way it is.
Next I played a cover that I'd never really played live before, Linger by The Cranberries. I had to concentrate on the words but that actually went really well, people were singing along to it and everything! I guess that's a nice song to break out if I need some respite from my insufferable self-pity, it certainly did me no harm tonight.
By this time I was feeling really good about how it was going and launched into the most energetic performance of Get Out Of My Head I think I've done so far. Usually, as my opener, that's the one that's got to win the crowd over and would set the tone for the gig. Now that I'd been on the stage for a few songs, I could relax a little and enjoy playing it, which I'm choosing to think made everybody else enjoy the song a lot more as well. I'll have to give that some serious consideration, not least because I've got a 7-song set list to come up with for Saturday.
So, all's well that ends well. And that's not something I say a great many times! Thanks again to Sam and Roy for putting the night on, we really appreciate it and it's going really well, I think. Need to get him doing one in Birmingham though; it's screaming for something like that...
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